


A Boy And A Bat

by Quicquidlibet



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Justice League - All Media Types, Superboy (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-15 06:03:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11799948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quicquidlibet/pseuds/Quicquidlibet
Summary: When Superman didn't want to interact with his clone, Batman intervened. The boy needed a home, and if Clark Kent wouldn't provide one, Bruce Wayne would. Years later, Conner Wayne is Superbat.Jon Kent, raised in a timeline he was not originally born in, grows up hearing about a Bat rumored to be Kryptonian.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapters in this series are not going to be in chronological order. Unbeta'ed.
> 
> Yeah, I know I named him after a popular ship name. I did that on purpose because I know it's funny.  
> Superbat's look is based on his original outfit, because there's no way Batman would let any of his kids crime fight in a t-shirt and jeans. Also, I'm a sucker for 90's Superboy.

Jon was in civilian clothes and in public, which meant he couldn't use his powers. He knew this, but he was still on edge. His teacher kept a tight grip on his shoulder, terrified of any of the kids running off into the museum. It probably didn’t help that she knew he was the one who often ran off, especially when something important was happening. He shouldn’t have stood so close to her during the tour. He was stuck and couldn't do anything.

The class was in a room near the back of the museum, with only a handful of other civilians. Jon could hear the art thieves in the other parts of the building if he focused hard enough. From what he could tell, there were two to a room, all armed with guns. Jon didn’t hear anyone getting hurt, so he focused back on his classmates. Everyone in the room was huddled along one wall, staying silent as the criminals had ordered. Katie, the girl who usually sat two desks away from him, was crying. Others clutched at each other as they stared at the two gunmen with wide, scared eyes.

"Really? How stupid can you get?" Jon jumped at the sudden appearance of the teen behind the gunmen. "I know this is closer to Metropolis than Gotham, but did you really think you wouldn't attract a Bat with stolen GCPD guns?" 

Jon squirmed excitedly in his teacher's grip as he recognized the hero. 

The teen was dressed in a black and blue jumpsuit with a red bat symbol on his chest, red utility belt slung around his waist. His signature leather jacket was covered in patches of the symbols of the various heroes of Gotham, along with other Justice League heroes, though the most predominate of those were the Flash and Wonder Woman patches. The largest patch was the shield on the back, the stylized G with the superimposed bat symbol being a clear reference to the House of El symbol. Even with the red mask around his eyes, everyone could see the exasperation in his eyes as he looked at the gunmen. 

"It's Superbat," Jon breathed out in awe. He had only heard stories about the member of the Bat family that was rumored to be Kryptonian. His parents kept insisting he was too young to meet any other heroes, but Superbat had been the one he wanted to meet the most. If there really was another Kryptonian outside of his family, he wanted to know them. 

"I told you little brats to shut up!" Jon froze as the gunman closest to him turned to point the gun at him. His invulnerability wasn’t fully developed yet. He could actually get hurt. Even if he didn’t, the bullet would ricochet. It could potentially hit someone else. Not to mention, it would reveal his identity. 

Superbat scoffed and walked further into the room. "Chill, man. He's just excited. Not everyday you get to see a hero,” he said. Well, that wasn’t the case with Jon, but nobody knew that. Besides, it wasn’t everyday that Jon got to see heroes who weren’t his dad. “I’m a little surprised,” the hero continued with a chuckle. “You’re the last ones of your little team to be taken care of, and you seem genuinely shocked to see me. Guess I’m getting sneakier.” 

"Move any further and I'll shoot him," the gunman said, making a point to flick off the safety. 

Rolling his eyes, Superbat stopped and raised his hands. "He's just a kid. Why don't you point that thing at me instead, huh?" 

The second gunman laughed. "You think we're stupid? Everyone knows you're the bulletproof one out of all those Bats." 

"Well, I guess I have no choice," Superbat said. The gun was suddenly knocked out the man's grip from seemingly nowhere, and Superbat punched him in the gut. The first gunman pulled the trigger, but just as quickly, Jon felt something unseen shove him and his teacher out of the bullet's path. 

Thinking quickly, Jon dashed forward and kicked the man's shin. The man dropped the gun and Jon kicked it towards his teacher, who passed it along to Superbat. 

Just as Superbat knocked out the second man, the first grabbed Jon by the throat and yelled incoherently. Jon had to remind himself to hold back on his strength as he struggled to get free. 

Superbat sped over with a small burst of flight and punched the man right in the face, pulling Jon into a protective embrace as soon as the grip on his throat let up. Jon gasped as he watched the man pass out from the force of the punch. 

With both men unconscious, Superbat set Jon down and swiftly moved to tie the men's arms with zip ties. Once they were secure, he moved the men and weapons to separate areas, before unloading the guns. 

"Excuse me?" Superbat looked up as Jon's teacher, Ms. Sheridan, spoke to him. She grabbed Jon’s shoulder in a protective grip as she spoke, her hand trembling. "I've contacted the police and they're on their way. But I was hoping you could stay with us until all my students are picked up by their parents. I don't want to risk anything else happening so soon." 

The teen smiled reassuringly and stood to shake her hand. "Of course. Are all your students accounted for? Was anyone injured before I got here?" 

"No, no one was hurt until Jon got himself involved," she said, shaking her head and tightening her grip on his shoulder. "Hopefully his throat is alright." 

"Ms. Sheridan! I couldn't just stand back and risk him shooting again!" Jon protested, turning his head to glance up at her. 

Superbat ruffled his hair. "That's brave, kid, but you could've gotten hurt." 

"If I didn't stop him, someone else woulda been hurt!" Jon said. Superbat only grinned, as if he found the comment endearing. 

"Superbat!" The three turned as Jon's classmates ran over in excitement, overcoming their fear and shock to greet the hero. 

"That was so cool! How did you move Ms. Sheridan and Jon without touching them like that?" 

"You're really him! That's so awesome!" 

"Can I get an autograph?" 

Superbat laughed and ruffled Jon’s hair again before turning to talk to the other children who were now crowding around him. “I have telekinesis, which means I moved them with my mind,” he said, earning a chorus of awed exclamations. Jon wiggled out of his teacher’s grip to join the others in their impromptu interview of the superhero. 

"You work with Batman, right?" Anna asked. 

Superbat smiled, obliging as Dennis eagerly handed him a pen and paper to sign. "Yeah, I call him Batdad cos he acts like a dad when he’s worried. I think it's cos he's older than me." 

The kids giggled and began mumbling "Batdad" to themselves. 

"Do you ever work with Superman?" Jon asked after Superbat had answered a few other questions, pushing to get closer from behind his classmates. 

Superbat ran his hand through his hair as his smile dropped into a more neutral expression, then shrugged as he handed back the current autograph he was allowing. "Nah. Superman doesn't really like working with me." 

Jon frowned. That didn't sound like his dad. His dad got along with everyone. "But why?" 

Superbat just shrugged again, but before he could respond, the police arrived and the hero left to brief them on the situation. The hero didn't interact with the kids after that, sticking close to the police and other civilians until the parents arrived. 

It wasn't until they were twenty minutes away from the museum that Jon finally asked the question on his mind that had been eating at him. 

"Mom?" he asked, staring at the back of the driver's seat. "Does Dad hate Superbat?" 

Lois glanced back at him momentarily before bringing her gaze back to the road. "Why you would think that, honey?" she asked, concerned. 

Jon fiddled with his seat belt. "Superbat said Superman avoids him, but I can't think of why." 

Lois sighed. "I think this is something your dad can explain better, but I can assure you he doesn't hate Superbat." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the universe that Jon and his parents are from, Kon was still Superboy. The canon events happened in that universe. Due to the differences in this universe, Clark and Lois have not told their son about Kon.
> 
> There are two reasons that Kon has the logos of other heroes on his jacket:  
> 1\. I really wanted him to show appreciation for his friends in Young Justice and Teen Titans. Because his closest friends are Bart, Cassie, and Tim, he has more patches of the Wonder and Flash symbols out of accidental favoritism. Tim falls under the Bat family symbols category, so it's not as obvious as the others.  
> 2\. He's being petty and purposely making a point to have the only reference to Superman on his jacket be a parody of the House of El shield, while also having the other hero symbols to rub it in that he likes them better than Superman. Even before he decorated his jacket, there were rumors about his powers being too similar to Superman's, so he created a parody of the shield to stir up gossip. (God help Bruce, he adopted yet another little shit.)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon found out the truth about Superbat. Conner officially meets Superboy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still unbeta'ed. Woo.

"Uh, no offense kid, but what?"  
  
Sniffling, Jon wiped his eyes on his sleeve and looked up to see Superbat hovering in front of him, right next to the edge of the roof Jon sat on. The fading sun and the city skyline behind him caused the teen hero to seem larger than life, ready for anything. The concern in his voice was soothing, and his presence alone almost calmed Jon down.  
  
Just like Superman.  
  
The resemblance only spurred more tears, so Jon pulled his knees closer and buried his face in them. He hadn’t planned to fly out to Gotham, especially since Batman had been part of the reason he was upset. Yet, he hadn’t been thinking of a destination, just flying on instinct.  
  
"Superboy, right? What are you doing crying on top of a Gotham skyscraper at seven at night?" Superbat asked, slowly moving to sit next to the crying ten year old. Jon twitched, startled, when he felt a hesitant hand running up and down his back in a soothing manner. “Plus, aren’t you still recovering from that whole incident with Manchester Black?”  
  
"You're my brother, aren't you?" Jon said quietly, ignoring the question as a hiccup escaped while he was trying to lessen his tears. He didn’t want to talk about that time, especially now that he knew everyone had been keeping secrets from him since his first meeting with Batman and Robin.  
  
The hand on Jon's back paused and Superbat looked out at the city. He remained silent for quite a while before giving Jon a wry grin and a shrug. "I guess. Are we really brothers if we didn’t grow up together?"  
  
Jon elbowed him lightly and grumbled out, "Superman is your dad, and he's my dad, so we're brothers." Man, why didn’t anyone understand his thought process?  
  
"I have his DNA, but that’s all he’s given me,” Superbat said. “My human DNA is from Lex Luthor, and I was raised by Batman. Doesn't that freak you out?"  
  
"No," Jon muttered. Well, the part about Luthor kind of startled him because he hadn’t known that, but that didn’t make the other evil. Batman wouldn’t adopt an evil person. Well, maybe the current Robin, except Robin was Batman’s biological son so that wasn’t adoption, it was more like family obligation, and Robin wasn’t necessarily evil, just grumpy and rude.

Chuckling, Superbat ruffled Jon's hair like he had when they first met. When Jon tried to move his head, the older Kryptonian-human hybrid laughed and pulled him into a side hug. "Then why are you crying about it, kiddo?"  
  
All these gestures reminded Jon of his dad, and that wasn’t helping at all. "Why didn't Dad raise you? Why didn't he want you? What if he doesn't want me?" Jon asked hurriedly before letting out a loud sob.  
  
Superbat immediately pulled the younger boy into a hug and made a stream of shushing noises, cutting off an exclamation of a swear word he wanted to let out as he realized what was going through Jon’s head.  
  
"He loves you, and he'll always want you," he said, rocking the younger gently. "But even Superman makes mistakes, and how he reacted when he met me was one of them."  
  
"But that isn't fair to you!"  
  
Squeezing the younger boy tighter, Superbat rested his cheek on Jon's head. "Look, things were uncomfortable with me and Superman before your family came to this timeline, and before your parents got the memories of this timeline’s version of them," he said. “But I talked to your dad after all that happened, and he told me what I was like in your universe. Things were a lot different.”  
  
"Really?" Jon mumbled into Superbat’s chest, hiccuping as he tried to talk around his tears.  
  
"Yeah. Apparently I was the first Superboy in your timeline. You’re stealing my title, kid,” he said with a laugh. “Your dad still made mistakes in the beginning, like my version of him did, but he learned from them. In both timelines, even if it took him longer in this one. He even gave me a Kryptonian name. Kon-El. It's pretty similar to my civilian name."  
  
"Kon rhymes with Jon," Jon mumbled into Kon's chest.  
  
Kon let out a loud laugh and nodded. "What if he did that on purpose?"

Jon pulled himself out of the hug but avoided looking at the teen. “I don’t have a Kryptonian name,” he said, pouting a little.

Kon grinned. “I’ll annoy him into giving you one if you really want one,” he said, startling a laugh out of Jon. He let the grin drop after a moment and put a hand on Jon’s shoulder, looking him in the eyes. “The only reason I didn’t meet you sooner was because I didn’t want to upset you. I didn’t know how you would feel about having a half brother. I don't want you to think I hate you, because I don't, okay?”  
  
Jon gave a shaky smile and kept wiping at his tears. "Okay. Can I stay with you tonight?"  
  
"Of course. Just let me call Batman and let him know what's going on. He'll let your parents know you're safe, so they aren't worrying all night."  
  
At that, Kon stood and walked away from the edge of the roof. Jon could hear him switch on the communicator in his ear, but he tuned out the conversation. Mom always said it was rude to eavesdrop, even with super hearing. Besides, the last time he eavesdropped, he ended up crying on a skyscraper like a big baby.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Conner Wayne came to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this, Kon is discovered when the scientists use the programming they put in him to make him attack Superman. It does some psychological damage.

There were so many noises surrounding him and things were too bright and spacious and so many people surrounding him oh man he can't handle this why is he here what are they going to do to him why would they bring him to Justice League headquarters if not to punish him why couldn't he have just been killed in battle what-  
  
"Would you like to sit down?" the woman with the stylized armor asked him gently, voice softer than the frantic discussion surrounding them, but enough to break through his racing thoughts.  
  
The- boy? experiment? abomination? Whatever you called him, he nodded minutely and followed her when she led him out of the conference-like room and into one more like the kitchens he had in his - others? - memories. Everything was just as overwhelming as the last room, and so he stood quietly by the island counter and tried and failed to ignore the carrying voices still washing over him in the background.  
  
_"Are you really sure he can be trusted-"_  
  
_"I've been through his memories. Though he had some programming in him, that was easily fixed-"_  
  
_"Regardless of programming, what about his own will-"_  
  
_"Dammit, Arrow, he's just a kid-"_  
  
_"He's not a kid, he's an experiment-"_  
  
The boy snapped his attention to the woman in the kitchen with him when she offered him a glass of water.  
  
Confused, he took it but did nothing more.  
  
"I am Diana. This must be very stressful for you, and I'm sorry. But once we establish you aren't a threat, things will calm down," she said with a smile, motioning for him to sit at one of the chairs by the island.  
  
"But I am a threat," he mumbled, settling his glass on the counter as he sat and rubbing at a smudge on the counter. "I attacked Superman."  
  
Diana reached forward and placed her hand over his, startling him into looking her in the eye. "You were under someone else's control. Our Martian Man-Hunter friend established that with his telepathic abilities. You are not at fault."  
  
He just stared down at his glass of water once again.  
  
"Do you have a name?" Diana asked.  
  
He shook his head.  
  
"Would you like one?"  
  
At that, he froze. A name. That he wanted. Would he even know to respond to it?  
  
Hesitantly, he nodded.  
  
Diana's face lit up into a grin and his lips quirked up shyly in response.  
  
"Are there any names you like?" she asked. "Most people don't get to choose their names, but others choose to change theirs for various reasons. Many of my friends have changed their names before, and they're always happier."  
  
He paused, scrunching his face in consideration. "I think my experiment number had a lot of K's and N's in it. I'd like a name with those sounds in it so it's not too different."  
  
"Ok!" Diana smiled. "We can look up names that fit and you can decide which you like best."  
  
He smiled in return and took a sip of water. He watched as she stood and grabbed a pen and paper from a nearby drawer before settling in her chair again.  
  
"I'll make a list of names I know, and I'll ask others for more suggestions and then you can look at the list," Diana said, and he just nodded in response.  
  
"Wonder Woman. Kid."  
  
He jumped as the man in all black with the long cape appeared behind him suddenly, though Diana remained calm.  
  
"Batman, hello. We're brainstorming names for him to pick from. Would you like to join?" she asked.  
  
The kid tensed in apprehension, but Batman only nodded and settled into a chair next to Diana.  
  
"That will come in handy very quickly," Batman said. He leaned in to look closer at the list. "Most of these would be considered too odd for modern day."  
  
Rolling her eyes, Diana passed the pen to Batman. "You add some then. He wants names with K and N sounds."  
  
"Have you come to a decision?" the kid asked. Batman looked up from the paper and set the pen down.  
  
"Yes. You will be living with me."  
  
Diana frowned. "Why not Clark?"  
  
"Superman is being irrational about the situation. However, I won't allow a teenager who is new to the world be forced to fend for himself, so I'm taking him in," Batman said.  
  
The kid glanced between the two adults. "So what will that mean?"  
  
"We will need to come up with a false background for you and a reason why you came to live with me," Batman said. "Legally, you will be my ward or my adopted son."  
  
The kid was silent as the adults waited for him to process the information. He was gonna have an adopted dad. He just attacked Superman, and instead of being punished, he was being given a parent. But he didn’t want to really think about that, so instead he focused on the name issue first. Pulling the list of names towards him, he studied it and then pointed at one midway down the list.  
  
"I like this one. It's pronounced Conner, right?" he said.

Diana cheered. "I suggested that one!"  
  
"One of the few normal ones you suggested," Batman said, a hint of amusement leaking through his voice.  
  
"Hush, I just helped someone choose their own name, this is an exciting moment for me," Diana said as she laughed, swatting Batman in the arm.  
  
Conner forced out an awkward laugh as well, before he quieted down and began fidgeting in his seat. "So... What will my background be like?"  
  
"I've already begun planning it. You and your family were caught in the most recent attack by Scarecrow. Your parents died, and you lost your memories permanently from how his poison affected you. The authorities couldn't track down your extended family, and so you couldn't live with them. You would have been put in the foster system if I hadn't heard your story and decided to take you in myself," Batman explained.

Conner nodded. He could remember that. He didn’t have to pretend to remember made up family members, so that helped. He just had to act confused, which he sort of was. That worked.  
  
Diana leaned over to whisper conspiratorially in Conner's ear. "His civilian persona is notorious for having a weak spot for helping kids."  
  
Batman sighed. "That was not subtle at all, Diana."  
  
Startled, Conner laughed genuinely at the banter, causing the two adults to share a relieved look.


End file.
